To: obiwan@ghosts.org
Date: Fri, 02 Jun 2000 21:07:37 -0700
From: "Perfect Dragonesss" (dragonesss@angelfire.com)
Subject: Brown Mtn. lights
Hi, my name is Emily, I am a western NC native. I just came across your site and I thought you might want to know the real story of the lights as I have heard them all my life. I have been here for the majority of my life and know all the local western NC ghost stories.
The Brown Mtn lights story goes like this. A very long time ago a young woman fell in love with a much older man. Her family was ver against the marrage and begged her not to marry him because he wasn't someone who was easily trusted.
Of course her heart ruled, her sences lost and she married him. For a short while they lived near her family then he thought they should move to Black Mtn. against her families will. He kept her locked up and wouldn't let her leave to see her family. Her husband loved to hunt so he stayed gone most of the time and out of fear she stayed at their home. She found out that he had been cheating on her so she wanted to leave so she waited for him to go on his usual hunting trip but he was suspicious of her actions. She by this time had a child and packed up her and the child belongings and went out into the woods. He followed with an ax and choped her head off and killed the child as well then burried them both.
He went home and became frantic with "worry" and summond all the neihbors to help him look for them because they were missing. Everyone had loved the woman so people came from miles around to aid the man. They all brought lanterns and divided up looking for them all through the woods and of course never found them. The man eventually moved the other woman in with him but after some time the guilt weighed on his mind and he became crazy and eventually killed himself. The neihbors never stoped looking for the bodies of the woman and child. Those are the lights that you are supposed to be seeing. That's the short of the story but basically it.
There are so many western NC ghost stories and as a child I became fascinated by them so everything I could get my hands on I read and everyone that knew anything about it I talked to. If you want to know any more to add to your site let me know. My mother stayed in the Bell witches house once years ago. There are many stories I wold love to share. I'm sorry this was so long I can get carried away at times. Thanks for taking the time to read this though!
Everyone that I know that has seem the lights (except me I scare easily) has tried to walk up to the lights but the vanish. scientists have studied it and once said it was marsh gases but then later came back to say that they had no real explaination for it they couldn't figure it out. There are no marshes and there are no marsh gases. You don't get marshes or marsh gases in WNC. So for now it's still completly a mystery.
Sincerly,
Emily
This page (http://www.ghosts.org/ghostlights/brownmtnlights2.html) last updated April 4, 2006.